May the Fourth be with you! Today I worked on campus, and I went to a dedication of a sculpture representing the twelve clans of the Ho-Chunk nation. There were speeches, there was drumming and singing, and afterwards there were Ho-Chunk treats, but I had promised my boss I would get right back to work, so I didn't get a chance to try any. They mostly looked like rice with berries on top, but there were intriguing things that looked like blue donut holes and other intriguing things that looked like crab Rangoons. It didn't look like there were enough for the number of people who came, anyway, so just as well that I didn't take any, but I sure was curious.
Then a strange thing happened as I waited for the bus. The bus stop where I catch the 28 bus heading north is on Johnson Street, one of the main arteries in town, and suddenly a cop pulled his car into the intersection, stopping traffic. He did this for a few minutes, then he let everyone go. I thought it was because there was so much traffic that they decided to stop it to let it clear up, but later I heard there was a big protest on University Avenue and Park Street, which wasn't far from where we were. I don't know for sure what the protest was about, but I suspect it had to do with a strange, racist rant posted to social media by a college student. The black students are understandably upset, but some of their requests are things that the administration has no legal power to do. I don't envy the Chancellor - she's really stuck in a tight spot! At least the Ho-Chunk gave her an awesome beaded medallion of Bucky Badger. I hope this crisis gets resolved soon, though I have no answers about what to do. You can't charge someone with a crime for saying terrible things, although it's possible they could charge the student with a threat because she said she wanted to kill all the black people, in a weirdly specific way hearkening back to plantation days. What would possess someone to say something like that is beyond me. There has to be some reckoning, but what? I'd be lying if I said I had any idea how to solve this dilemma.
Famous Hat
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